Imagine my surprise as Republicans here in the U.S. have contributed mightily to stem cell research recently.

Wait, what?

There is a perception that when it comes to stem cell research and particularly embryonic stem cell research that there is a political divide with Republicans opposed to it and Democrats for it.

Of course it is not that simple, but it sure seems like most Republican leaders (even if not necessarily ordinary Republicans) spew out a lot of anti-stem cell rhetoric and do extreme things like sign “personhood” pledges.

So it is indeed surprising that Republicans have recently made decisions that are almost certain to help embryonic stem cell research.

Really? you ask.

Yes, the Republicans have surprisingly helped us in the stem cell field by in effect painting themselves into a corner during their primaries, leaving them with two extremely weak presidential candidates.

The two remaining GOP candidates (for the moment assuming Mr. Paul and Santorum are effectively out of the running) are Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney.

Seeing these two as the remaining fellows, one of whom who will have to go against Obama later this year, must make Obama feel like a kid in a candy store. His potential opponents are so bad, it must just be so hard for him to choose who he’d rather face. What a pickle!

Sorry to my Republican friends, but Gingrich and Romney are equally horrible candidates.

Republicans have done the stem cell field and America more generally a great service by leaving themselves with a pool of two nightmarish candidates. I believe neither can beat Obama barring some jolting development. Most Republicans realize this and now have a full on case of “the vapors”.

Gingrich is an ethically-challenged jerk hated by most establishment Republicans and Romney is an elitist, out-of-touch pseudo-Republican that most Republicans truthfully cannot stomach. Choose your poison, Republicans.

Romney just today released his tax forms for 2010 and 2011, earning more than $40 million and paying less tax on that than most Americans including the middle class. A sizable chunk of his money has gone to Swiss bank accounts (which Romney closed for political reasons) and the Cayman Islands. His work history is solidly founded on earning $10s of millions via Bain by getting hundreds if not thousands of ordinary Americans fired and bankrupting companies. This is the guy who said publicly that he likes to be a position to fire people. This is the guy who calls corporations “people” and seems like a grown up version of the comic character Richie Rich. If, as Romney asserts, corporations are indeed “people” then is not his killing of so many companies a violation of the pro-life agenda he now claims to espouse?

Gingrich has more enemies amongst Republicans than Democrats, which is quite an achievement. He is on his third wife and was cheating on an earlier wife while simultaneously rabidly pushing for Clinton’s impeachment for lying about cheating on his wife. Can you say “Hypocrite”? On TV, Gingrich comes across as a cross between a rabid pit bull and the Pillsbury dough boy. He has publicly stated that if he is President and the Supreme Court makes a ruling he does not like, he’ll simply ignore it. The idea of Newt as the GOP nominee this year is giving mainstream Republicans arrhythmias and fainting spells. They are near hysterical at his performance in S. California and the prospect that Gingrich could well win the Florida primary too.

Of course if Ron Paul runs as a third-party candidate, this is likely to siphon off more votes from whomever is the official Republican nominee as well.

So, thank you Republicans, for making it more and more likely that Obama, a friend to stem cell research, will remain in office, avoiding the stem cell perfect storm I posted about in December.